9 Tips to Boost Event Attendance With Social Media Marketing
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Today, there is nothing strange about virtual events, as almost all industries have to go online. Last year, 73% of B2B marketers said webinars and online meetings had the highest lead generation rates. With the right approach, online meetings can be even more efficient and convenient for all users. But there is a logical question - how to promote your event and attract interested users? Using the modern opportunities of social media can be the right strategy. Below are ten helpful tips to promote your event via social platforms.
1. Make Sure to Choose the Right Social Platform
There are a lot of social media platforms but not all of them are equally suitable for promoting an event. What’s more, each of them requires you to have a separate social media marketing strategy since the target audience and specifics of each of the platforms are very diverse.
Facebook and Instagram seem to be the best places for event promotion so you may either pick the one platform or use the mix of both. Plus, you may also use YouTube to support your promotional strategy with the help of video content marketing and video-embedded advertising. The recent social media marketing statistics state that these platforms are the most popular options globally, plus each of them provides effective functionality to make some noise around your event.
2. Prepare in Advance
The first thing to do is to attract new and potential customers to your event. Use your social media profiles to announce an upcoming event. Even a few hours before the conference, new users can join you if you constantly remind them about the value they will get.
In the announcement of your event, tell the potential audience about your event. Use intrigue and attract attention with innovative information. Create a post on social networks that will describe the issues that you will consider at the meeting. Post a photo of the speakers, indicate the topic of their presentation and make an intriguing description. Carefully choose a photo for the post, the portrait should inspire sympathy with the user, so take care of retouching. The description of the report, however, should arouse desire to find out what will be there. How do they do in TV shows, creating intrigue at the end of the episode and thereby prompting you to watch the next one.
3. Use The Smart Mix of Hashtags
Don’t forget to strengthen your announcing post with hashtags that should be picked in a smart way. Always use your branded hashtag - this is one more tool to increase your brand awareness, make your event and related post searchable and findable, plus using hashtags is one more content technique to build your brand.
Also, use industry-specific hashtags and those specifying the problem that will be solved for the users during the event. For example, if you launch a webinar on how to stay balanced while working from home, you may use some hashtags like #workfromhomebalance.
4. Run Targeted Ads
Running targeted ads is one of the most effective event promotion strategies. Such an approach allows for setting up the ads campaign as accurately as possible and targeting your ads on the most interested users, according to their preferences and behavior. Facebook is famous for its targeted ad opportunities, so make use of it to attract users from Facebook itself and Instagram. What’s more, the cost to run such a campaign is quite affordable while the results can be truly impressive.
5. Share Videos From Previous Events
Sharing video clips from your previous events is a great way to convey the atmosphere of the event and show the expected value. What’s more, it is a free advertising strategy that combines many benefits. Users engage in video content very well, plus it is a way to introduce them to speakers.
It is also a good way to warm up the interest of those who have already registered. 100% attendance is quite rare, but this approach will help you retain registered users and convince them to attend the event.
6. Use a Countdown Timer
You can also add a countdown timer to your Instagram Stories mentioning that there is an hour left before the start of the meeting, and those who did not manage to register earlier can do it right now. The stats show that 29% of users join the meeting on the day of the event.
This is a purely psychological trick powered by the Fear of Missing Out which subconsciously forces your users to take action so as not to miss anything important and stay in trend.
7. Reveal the Expertise of Your Speakers
One more tip to boost your event attendance with the help of social media is to attract the attention of your users to the expertise of the speakers. Since the users join any event with the intent to get ultimate value, making them acquainted with the speakers is one more effective approach.
What’s more, it doesn’t take much time to do it. Firstly, mention the speakers and their expertise in your even announcing post. Next, you may come up with several questions and come up with a video interview with each of the speakers. If you have no opportunity to meet them in person, Zoom is still perfect for online interviewing. Then, share these short videos on Instagram Stories, Facebook, and YouTube.
8. Partner With Other Media to Hype Up Your Event
While social media are great for even promotion, there is one more opportunity to increase your even awareness by partnering with other media platforms from your industry. Pick several credible websites your target audience dwell on and agree on posting something like a press release that will highlight your event, its benefits, and opportunities.
Such an approach will also provide your event-dedicated website with a valuable backlink which is quite important for SEO rankings. Plus, it will serve as a way for your potential attendees to get registered for the event. Read more on how this approach may work for your event promotion.
9. Give Away Some Perks
At this stage, you are welcome to continue your event promotion. After the event is over, don’t forget to share the success of the meeting on your social media. Make a report that will attract customers who missed the meeting. Use the feedback from your participants, indicate how many people were at the meeting, how effectively you discussed the topic, and so on.
Also, give away some perks for your attendees, future attendees, and those who missed an event. For example, you may offer a discount to buy an event recording for those who registered but haven’t attended an event. Or you may state that the recording will be free for those who will get registered on the next event right now and share it on their social profiles, as an option.
Conclusion
The tips above will help you effectively promote your event via social media. With the right planning, you will be able to attract a lot of prospective leads, communicate with your audience, win new loyal customers and allow them to communicate with each other. But don’t forget about the most important part - the content of the event itself. The best marketing strategy will never help with the even promotion if there is no real value so make sure to balance between the value you deliver and the marketing approaches you use.